Opposition leaders along with union representatives and civil society leaders held talks with the ECOWAS appointed mediator Abdulsalami Abubakar on Thursday and Friday.

VOA: standard.2009.11.14

Assad would be more than eager to play the role of a mediator between the U.S.and anybody.

VOA: standard.2009.03.18

On Monday,the ECOWAS mediator met with a Niger government delegation, also in Abuja as a prelude to a wider stakeholder forum on Niger at a later date.

VOA: standard.2009.11.14

Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore is the ECOWAS mediator for Guinea.

VOA: standard.2009.12.07

Professor Fouad Ajami, who directs the Middle East Studies program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, thinks President Assad is well placed to act as mediator with Iran.

VOA: standard.2009.03.18

Witnesses say at one point early Friday morning, The chief mediator at the talks, former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano ordered Mr.Rajoelina to sit down and be quiet when he threatened to walk out.

VOA: standard.2009.11.08

After difficult and lengthy negotiations, the Southern African Development Community's mediator, then-South African president Thabo Mbeki, shepherded the three leaders into concluding the agreement, which produced a government of national unity in February of this year.

VOA: standard.2009.09.15

Abdeidna said it was disappointing to hear what he called the anti-democratic principles of the mediator sent by the African Union, but that he was not surprised given that Mr.Gadhafi is, in Abdeidna's words,"a man of coups himself."

VOA: standard.2009.03.12

"I think that the Americans want to improve their relations with Syria to weaken Iran and to further isolate it in the region, so I don't think the Americans need Syria as a mediator with Iran, because that would improve relations between Tehran and Damascus,"

VOA: standard.2009.03.18

"We don't understand how come a mediator who was supposed to defend the cause of democracy will help us to embrace something we've been fighting for nine months, thinking that we were willing or keen to accept a token of gratitude from the general,".

VOA: standard.2009.03.12

The Syrians straddle the fence between the order of conservative nations on the one hand and this alliance with Iran on the other and it would make perfect sense for Bashar al-Assad to pose as the mediator with the Iranians, which means: hey,if you folks think I'm bad, think of the Iranians,they're much worse, but I have credit in their bank and I can deal with the Iranians."

VOA: standard.2009.03.18